Poet-Critics: poetological encounters in the 20th century through literary criticism
A feature frequently shared by 20th century poets is their interest in the field of literary criticism. It is common that the literary interests of a poet find a place in their literary production through direct quotations, veiled references, stylistic imitation or thematic affinities that are often the object of intertextual analysis. Yet, the aesthetic interests also find a way in the form of criticism which offers an opportunity to explore the poets’ perceptions about literature in different corners of their literary production. This practice-based criticism (Poets writing about Poetry), which materialised in the form of essays, challenges the very limits of literature as object of knowledge re-directing the attention to literature as the source of knowledge. Moreover the distinction between “academic” essay and “literary” essay denotes a rather artificial divide that excludes some of these texts from the realm of the epistemic and force them to the realm of the literary/aesthetic. Therefore, it is worth paying attention to those Poets who engaged in literary criticism in order to examine what they wrote about literature and how they wrote about it to trace back how these interactions are mediated by elements that belong not just to the literary, but also to the epistemic, political and social analysis. 

Short  biography:
Alain Daniel Alvarez Vega (Mexico, 1989) earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science (2013) and one in Classical Philology (2017) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In 2019, he graduated on European Literary Cultures with a Master’s degree at the Universities of Strasbourg (UNISTRA), Bologna (UNIBO) and Thessaloniki (AUTH). His research interests lie in Comparative literature, Poetics and Literary Theory in a global context. His current project engages with the intersection between Literature and Epistemology from a postcolonial perspective with a focus on Plurilingualism, Literary criticism and Cultural translation. 

E-Mail: alain.alvarezvegauni-koeln.de 

Teaching activities:
-Seminar: Postcoloniality and disruptive theories in Comparative Literature: epistemic disobedience and the production of knowledge in the humanities. (SoSe 2022)

Presentations:
-Poetas-Críticos: encuentros poetológicos en el siglo XX a través de la crítica literaria. Presentation at the Oberseminar Romanische Literaturwissenschaft. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cologne. (WiSo 2021-2022).

Publications:
-Translation: Ovid’s Selected Poems in Revista Los Bastardos de la Uva, Año 5, Número 20, Enero-Marzo 2015. 

-Short article: Creatividad y Originalidad en la Antigüedad: aspiración a una literatura colectiva in Revista Capitel, No.14, Ciudad de México, Octubre, 2018.